Insect screens

[Jamie Buxton]

I'm building a wooden screen door. I'm planning on retaining the screen material with the rubber round spline sold for this purpose. What I'd like to know is how wide to make the dado to hold the spline. For instance, if I buy .160" diameter spline, how wide should the dado be?

[ray hampton]

spline 0.160 +the screen thickness when double, keep the size of the groove small, the rubber will compress some

[Dan Hintz]

Jamie,

If you're unsure, run a few different widths and try to press in some spline/screen. Use the one that gives you a good capture without tearing the screen or spline material. Width of the spline + twice the screen thickness will create too loose of a groove.

[Jamie Buxton]

Yeah, I can do trial and error. But it seems like this should be part of the spec on the spline. They carefully spec the OD, but I can't find a similar spec on the dado it fits into.

[Dan Hintz]

They'd have to specify the compression ratio of the spline, and they don't know what thickness of screen you plan to use. I'd start with a dado roughly the size of the spline and work from there. Seems like you could hit the sweet spot with a couple of dados and a file to widen. My guess would be it'll be somewhere between spline alone to spline+1 screen thickness, though that's just a guess on my part but not having to do such work. You should only need a 1-2" long dado on a junk board to check it with.

[Lee Schierer]

I made a wooden screen door several years ago and used the rubber spline to hold the screen in place. It worked very well for over ten years, you will need to play with the groove width to get the right fit. Make sure you make the groove deep enough. If you have a set of dial or digital calipers, take them to the store and measure their aluminum extrusions for making screen window inserts and make your groove to that dimension. Be sure you buy the spline that fits than particular extrusion. The measurements should give you accurate information to make your groove in the wood. Your finish may reduce the width fo the groove sufficiently to make it too small for the spline, so I would suggest a test piece with the same number of finish coats you plan to use on the door.

[ray hampton]

I'm building a wooden screen door. I'm planning on retaining the screen material with the rubber round spline sold for this purpose. What I'd like to know is how wide to make the dado to hold the spline. For instance, if I buy .160" diameter spline, how wide should the dado be?

How will you machine the dado ? a 1/8 bit is 0.125 , did you buy the spline already ? 0.160 seems to be odd size unless the the tool are ground to size from 3/16, 3/16 are 0.188

[Ed Aumiller]

Keep the aluminum pieces in shop to repair screens...

Just measured them and the groove width is .122", basically 1/8"
The depth is .166" , 1/6"

If you try 1/8" it should be about right after you apply finish to the door...

[ray hampton]

Ed, did you measure the thickness of the screen ? I will guess that the screen are .015

[Ed Aumiller]

Went back out and measured fresh roll of screen, fiberglass, from BORG..
It is .012" thick...

Do not think groove width will be that critical.. 1/8" should work fine...
Be sure to put groove at least 3/8" (or more) from edge so you don't split it off
when putting screen in... and use good wood, it will get a lot of abuse..

I have used various types of screen (fiberglass & metal) and various brands of spline over the
years... whatever my local hardware had in stock so I could get the job done..

They all worked fine in both wood screen doors (renters are hard on them),
aluminum storm doors and aluminum frames for in windows...

The rubber spline will tolerate a lot of variations..

Just be sure to use the special roller to push them into place.. about a $3 item
at most hardware stores.

[Ed Aumiller]

The label on the spline says 1/8" x 100' but it is actually slightly over 1/8" so it is probably designed for 1/8" groove..

Here is link to tool mentioned..
http://www.lowes.com/pd_42401-15369-71465_0__?productId=3094501&Ntt=screen+tools&pl=1&currentURL=%3FNtt%3Dscreen%2Btools&facetInfo=

The one I have has a wood handle, but it is probably 15 years old..

Good luck...

[Peter Quinn]

I did a pile of these a few years back, we did 1/8" slots for the rubber spline, the depth I don't recall, that was set with spline in hand. The spline needs to be under compression to hold the screen in place, the screen needs to be fairly taught to look good in use, a loose fitting spline wouldn't work well. On another job I made doors with a rabbit to hold screens and storms in aluminum frames that could be changed seasonally, that was a bit tougher to make the exterior wooden frame, but infinitely easier than stuffing spline in wooden slots because we ordered the screens from the glass company.

[ray hampton]

Went back out and measured fresh roll of screen, fiberglass, from BORG..
It is .012" thick...
The rubber spline will tolerate a lot of variations..

Just be sure to use the special roller to push them into place.. about a $3 item
at most hardware stores.

thanks for the measurement, the roller tool got two wheels , one wheel are convex to form a groove in the screen for the spline, while the other wheel are concave to forced the spline into the groove, the spline according to the internet are made from plastic or foam rubber, what type of foam rubber ?????? DO FOAM RUBBER STRETCH

[Ed Aumiller]

All the splines I have used/seen are not foam rubber or plastic.. they are a flexible rubber... stop by your hardware store tomorrow and look at them...

I never put the groove in the screen.. I simply roll the spline down one side of the opening, stretch screen across the opening and roll the spline down the opposite side..
Then I do top and bottom while holding screen in position...

It is really a simple job...
It is often easier if you have someone hold screen snug while rolling, as Peter said.. looks much better

[Jamie Buxton]

How will you machine the dado ? a 1/8 bit is 0.125 , did you buy the spline already ? 0.160 seems to be odd size unless the the tool are ground to size from 3/16, 3/16 are 0.188

The rubber spline at the local borg is .125", .140", .160", .180", and .250. Yes, they spec it to a thousandth of an inch. I haven't bought the spline yet.

I'm thinking I'll have to machine the dado with a router and an edge guide. The dados on the stiles are going to have to be stopped dados, so the table saw is out. Using the edgeguide on the router means I'll have to machine the dados prior to gluing up the door, and there will be some hand chiseling in the corners. The hand chiseling suggests a wider dado; most of my chisels are thicker than .125 (or whatever the dado is for that spline).

[Jamie Buxton]

So I've done the trial-and-error to find the answer to my question. With spline that's called .175" and fiberglass screen that's .010" thick, the optimum channel width is .170". .180" is too loose, and .160" is too tight. So the tolerance on the channel width is less than .010".

[Mark Bolton]

Do yourself a favor and avoid that POS spline tool at lowes and go to a decent hardware store and get yourself a decent spline tool with wood handle, metal wheel, and metal parts. Those junk spline tools wobble all over and are basically a one shot deal. Mind you, if the wheel wobbles and walks over close to the inside edge of the slot it will shear off vinyl/fiberglass screen. Then you start over. Should you decide to do it right and use aluminum (color of your choice) screen, a plastic tool will quickly find the trash can.

You will find in many areas that bugs and mice will chew a hole through vinyl/fiberglass screen in the blink of an eye.

Like everything in today's society vinyl and fiberglass screen has become the norm because it's easy and people are lazy. If you are anything like this area you'll be re-screening regularly so the better tool will come in handy.

Also, in my experience error on the tight side for slots on a screen door because if it's loose and the door doesn't have a closer, the slamming of the door will shake the spline out of the groove. Stopping the groove would avoid that too but a tight slot is best.